The bus was stopped at the intersection on the east of Cawdor.
“You can go to Cawdor Castle to the south.” the bus driver said to me. I gave thanks to him and got off the bus. The bus was stopped near Cawdor Castle as I said I went to the Castle when I bought a ticket.
My destination was not the Castle, but if I asked the way to the distillery, someone would not know about the distillery. Not all Scottish know about whisky very well.
And When I walked for about 2km from the intersection to the east and took some photographs, I saw Royal Brackla Distillery surrounded by glass fields and rape blossoms fields.
I thought that I arrived the distillery at last, but I had to walk to the distillery more a short distance. However I was really happy because of seeing Royal Brackla Distillery.

Royal Brackla Distillery was built in 1812 near Cawdor Castle, which is famous for Macbeth of Shakespeare.
It is the first distillery to be awarded the royal warrant from William IV in 1835.
However, management of the distillery was not succeeded during 1800s. Some owners had Royal Brackla Distillery. After that, SMD, the present UDV, took over the distillery in 1943. Now distillery has been owned by Bacardi since 1998, which is known as a producer of rum.
Royal Brackla Distillery isn’t near Cawdor and Inverness, and it is off the railway. I think It was really difficulty to carry whisky when the distillery was established. It has been surrounded by farmlands.

The Caledonian Canal runs from Fort William, Western Scotland to Inverness. It was started in 1803 to plans produced by Thomas Telford, who build the Craigellachie Bridge in 1814, following survey work by James Watt thirty years earlier. It was finally opened in 1822, which was badly behind in the schedule. However it was reduced from original plan.
When a second phase of construction was finished in 1847, the canal became originally proposed. At that time, it was the fastest route between Inverness and Western Scotland. Nonetheless, until the railway reached Inverness the quickest way from there to Glasgow was by steamship via the Caledonian Canal.
There were two distilleries, Glen Albyn and Glen Mhor beside the canal. Two of them and Millburn Distillery were closed in 1980’s, during depression of whisky, and all of distilleries in Inverness was lost. Now, the shopping centre has been built on the site of Glen Albyn and Glen Mhor. And people wouldn’t realize that distilleries had been there.

I got on a bus to Inverness and bought a ticket to Muir of Ord, and I told the bus driver that I went to Glen Ord Distillery. The driver stopped the bus at a junction of a branch road to distillery. I walked for about 10 minutes after I got off the bus. I passed beside the large building of Glen Ord maltings, then I came in sight a malt kiln and warehouse. Suddenly, something were scattered to a bush. I seemed to surprise wild rabbits.. They may have had a meeting at a car park.

Building a distillery next to a distillery is not rare in Scotland, there are some pair of two adjacent distilleries. Most of them would be for reinforcement of production capacity. However, the relation between Clinelish and Brora is different. When Clynelish, which was built for reconstruction of production equipments, become stable to operate, Brora may have been closed. Depression of whisky in 1980’s may have been good as a reason of close.
I don’t know the reason, but Brora single malt whisky, which distillery was closed more than thirty years ago, become few and rare whisky.

Teaninich Distillery, which lies beside River Aberon, west of Alness, was formally established in 1817. However, according to The Whisky Distilleries in UK, written by Alfred Barnard, it was established in 1800. Alness and surrounding areas were very thriving area of making whisky. Teaninich may have been started before.
Teaninich Distillery was taken over by Scottish Malt Distillers Ltd.(present UDV) in 1934, and it was rebuild to modern equipments in the first half of 1970.
Now, Teaninich is one of the most productive distillery in distilleies of UDV and annual output is about 6 million liters, though annual output was about 360,000 liters in the end of 19th.
I’ve heard that Teaninich malt whisky was blended into the Drambuie, but I don’t know for certain.

I arrived at Dalmore Distillery about half past twelve, just lunch break. Nobody was in the manager’s office. I didn’t have an appointment, but I thought that I would probably be able to see in distillery.
I visited the manager’s office again around thirteen o’clock, so manager greeted me with a smile. Then he guided me in the distillery.
Dalmore Distillery was on the large site, had large warehouses, unique shape of kiln, and pot stills. I felt Dalmore Distillery was really impressive distillery.
After that, we returned to office and I had a tasting of Dalmore single malt whisky. In a minute, manager also started to drink whisky, and talked about whisky with me. It was like drinking with friends at a pub rather than a tasting. When I visited to Dalmore Distillery, I wasn’t much good at English conversation. However there was no border, no wall of language between the two of whisky drinkers.